DOHA (Reuters) - Several members of the six-nation Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC) that includes Saudi Arabia are
determined to meet a 2010 target to introduce single currency,
the council's secretary general said on Sunday.

"There is determination from a number of countries to
complete monetary union by 2010," Abdul-Rahman al-Attiyah said
at a central bank governors' meeting in Qatar's capital, Doha.

Qatar holds the revolving chair of the GCC, a loose
economic and political bloc which also includes the United Arab
Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman.

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Some Gulf countries were ready to join by 2010 and others
could follow at a later stage, Attiyah said, without being more
specific.

The six states in the world's biggest oil-exporting region
have been trying to negotiate a single currency by 2010, a
deadline policy makers across the Gulf have said would be
difficult, if not impossible, to meet as countries seek to
follow divergent strategies to try to cope with rising
inflation and dollar weakness.

Qatar's Central Bank Governor, Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud
al-Thani, said on Saturday Gulf Arab states would try to meet
that deadline by trying to remove obstacles to the project,
including harmonizing payment systems and regulations.

Oman threw the single currency project into disarray in
2006 when it said it would not join by the 2010 deadline. It
has since said it will not join at all.

Kuwait also cast doubt on the deadline when it broke ranks
with its neighbors and severed its peg to the dollar last May,
saying the weak dollar was fuelling inflation by driving up
import costs.